The Summer of Living Dangerously (But Safely) - California Land ...

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when the PDL antenna started making a loud buzzing sound
and the hair on my arms and neck started standing up. I quickly
jumped down and put the equipment on the ground. I was
sure that lightning was going to strike but thankfully it didn’t. I
used the opportunity to explain to Conor what to do in the
event of such an emergency. First grab the mine radio and call
for radio silence and ask for the mine foreman, then state “man
down” and give the location as concisely as possible. The
mine procedure in such an event is that all equipment and
vehicles throughout the mine are immediately stopped and
radio silence is held until instructed otherwise. Each mine has
an ambulance and a crew of EMT’s called “first responders”
and they are dispatched to the scene and usually can arrive
within minutes. Lightning strikes often cause burns and can
sometimes cause the victim’s heart to stop so CPR training
is useful. (I am trained in the procedure and update my training
annually, Conor is not yet trained). All in all it was a close
call and a ‘teachable moment’ but with no ill effects.
Surveying when lightning strikes are possible is a needless
risk but one easily overlooked.
The following week I took the boy, by now an old hand at
mine surveying, to Newmont’s LoneTree mine, which is now
closed and undergoing reclamation. One state-mandated closure
requirement is to monitor the tails surface to see how the
material is solidifying or consolidating, as the process is called.
All of the surface water on these tails has long since soaked in
or evaporated. Last winter I set 15 monuments in the 200-acre
tails impoundment. These monuments (except for one) are 10
foot long pieces of angle iron with a reflective prism on the top
and a cross bar welded 4 feet below the top. They are driven
in until the cross bar rests on the surface and the prisms are
pointed toward a permanent control station on a hill next to the
dam. One monument differed from the above
specifications because it was placed in the
area where the pool used to be and the mud
there was still quite soft. This particular spot
required a 20 foot section of angle iron plus a
rubber mat and piece of plywood for the
cross bar to rest upon. Setting that monument
was where I originally developed the
previously described plywood snowshoe
technique although I must point out that once
such a plank becomes slick with mud, it is
easy to fall off and become mired up to your
waist in the tails. Not that I would know that
first hand…
So it is time for the quarterly observation
of the tails monuments at LoneTree. I set up
my total station on the permanent control
point above the dam. It is an iron pipe in concrete
with a bolt on the top on which to
thread the total station, thereby removing
instrument height from any subsidence calculations.
The pipe, an old mine survey control
point, was originally set by someone
much taller than me so last winter to make it
easier to use, I stacked some large rocks around the pipe to
stand on. I was standing on said rocks when Conor pointed
out a 3-inch long scorpion crawling out of the rocks next to my
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The Summer of Living Dangerously (But Safely)
boot. A sting from such a creature could in a worst-case be
fatal, but even the best case scenario would still be pretty
crappy. We coaxed our little friend, who was the largest scorpion
I’ve ever seen in this part of the country, into a split-open
water bottle and duct taped it shut. The scorpion for lived all
summer in a terrarium in our kitchen. I called him “Rudy”, after
Rudolf Schenker, the guitarist for 80’s rock band The
Scorpions. Rudy loved big crickets and grasshoppers and
really did glow in the dark when lit with a black light. Alas, we
set him free he is now back slinking with his carapace clad
compadres. Poisonous creatures abound in the Great Basin
and avoidance is the best way to deal with them (rather than
making them a house guest). By the way, the monument with
the 20-foot section of angle iron has since sunk out of site, plywood,
rubber mat and all. I’d have to say that consolidation is
not yet complete.
Next up for the young surveyor was a series of aerial photo
control projects. On days when we were not surveying at the
Phoenix tails dam, we had to set 83 flight crosses at 6 different
mine sites and associated exploration areas throughout
Northern Nevada. Given the terrain, the use of ATV’s was not
only warranted, it was critical. ATV use is one the things where
specific task training is required, and so I task-trained perennial
good sport Conor. Commencing this type of operation
means outfitting each ATV to carry: flight crosses – each leg
pre-assembled as a twenty foot section stapled to a piece of
lath at each end and rolled up, 60d nails and shiners to secure
the 20 foot flight crosses against the almost constant desert
winds, a hammer, the GPS equipment, (again the trusty backpack
clad Trimble 4700), a rod and bipod, a handlebar mounted
handheld GPS device for navigating to the pre-computed
lats and longs, and most important since it is the desert in
summer, bottles of water.
The first project required carrying the
GPS base station equipment as well as the
other gear to a control point on the top of a
mountain. The trail up was an old drill road,
overgrown with brush and with notorious
switchbacks from the valley floor, which was
situated at around 5000 feet above sea level,
to a saddle near the top at an elevation of
over 8500 feet. Loaded down with gear and
climbing such a steep grade in July, both
four wheelers battled overheating problems
the whole way. This project was relatively
uneventful although I confess it is best not to
look over the downhill side of that road while
riding on it. Regardless of the summer heat,
I insist on proper safety gear including steeltoed
boots and helmets. Too many ATV
fatalities involve rollovers by people not
wearing helmets.
The next site was mostly in an arid valley
in an area bracketed by the Union Pacific
Railroad main line and the always-on-it’slast-legs
Humboldt River. (The Donner party thought the
waters of the Humboldt to be almost undrinkable, even for the
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